Big Snow!!

I grew up outside of New Orleans and then moved to Memphis in middle school.  Two things these places have in common is that they are flat and hot.  In the 7 years we lived in Louisiana, we got snow flurries one time, on my birthday, and all of school let out to look at the snow, many for the first time.  In Memphis, snow was rare and special.

Living in middle TN now, we enjoy snow much more often than I ever had as a child.  

Our first year in middle TN, after living on the equator for 2 years, we got a big snow - the first for Caleb and AB.

Last week the Nashville area got it's biggest snow since the year we moved here.  Six inches again.  And it was the good kind - the kind that makes perfect snowballs, snowmen and snow forts.  

The Fish Sticks played for hours on end and I spent the majority of my days mopping up melted snow on the floor, running the dryer and serving hot beverages.  

But that's o.k.  That's my job and I'm so glad that my kids get to experience the joy of snow.

Our little temporary dwelling

Not going anywhere for a while.

I laughed to notice that the 3 driveways in the neighborhood that were perfectly cleared off on day 2 of the snow belonged to the families from Michigan, Ohio and New York.  

Snow fort

This little Congo cutie was shoving his face in the snow to eat it.

Packing it tight in the bucket

They slept well at night!

Carrying On Traditions

I grew up in a Game Family.

We played games all the time.  

My sister, Katie, and I spent hours and hours playing Go Fish, Uno, Old Maid, Dutch Blitz and board games of every kind.  

Although she has totally carried this family tradition into her own family by always having the latest craze of games and bringing them to most of our family gatherings, this tradition I have been lazy about passing on.

Living in a house half the same of our old one and living with half of our belongings boxed up, this house can seem really small and we can get cabin fever easily.  Since I'm not an electronic-loving mom and none of my Fish Sticks are book lovers (much to my dismay), I decided we would start playing games.

Dominoes were the game that we ALWAYS played at Mimi and Papa Blair's house for HOURS on end.  As seemed fitting, I used the Christmas money from Papa Blair to buy a set of 9 dominoes and taught my Fish Sticks how to play.  

After finding a deck of Uno cards in Grandma's attic and pulling out a deck of face cards from the drawer, the Payne traditions are finally living on in the Fish house...and it's a good thing!

Ride Home Reveals All

I have a good idea that Jeshua and Jedidiah are not utilizing their nap time in Pre-K.  Just a hunch.

She's Scrappy

It's been a couple of years since Caleb and AB have played basketball.

Basketball is a long season with lots of practices and games, so I haven't been too sad to be without basketball players in this house.

In December, we were approached about signing Ruth up to play basketball.  Our school is looking to the future and thought about forming a rec league with the 5th grade girls now so that they can filter into our MS and HS teams one day.

In 4th grade and 5th grade, AB was part of a rec team with the same focus.  To date, our HS girls basketball team consist of mostly 9th grade girls from AB's class.  It's a good concept but I was hesitant to sign up for this commitment because I had already enrolled the 3 girls in indoor soccer for January and February.

My friend was persistent in asking me to sign Ruth up.  "She's so scrappy!  She'd make a great basketball player."  Scrappy she is and honestly, she probably would make a good basketball player.

We signed up.  First practice Ruth hopped in the car to tell me that they had to make 2 teams because so many girls signed up.  "One team were the good players and one team were the not-so-good players.  I'm on the not-so-good team," she told me.  Well, they did split up according to skill level and Ruth was placed with all the girls who had NEVER played basketball.  The coaches were starting from scratch - rules of the game, skills,... the works.

First game, they quit keeping score after the opponent got a 20 point lead.  

Second game, the 20 point lead came after 2 1/2 minutes of game time.  They easily got close to 100 points.

They are LONG games.  Funny thing is that Ruth said before the 3rd game, "I hope we don't get beat as bad as last time because it was 20-0 last time."  Bless her.  I'm not telling.

And while Ruth has no previous skills or understanding of the game of basketball, her scrappiness had her dominate the game.  Every girl who touched the ball, was throwing it right back to Ruth.  She's fearless, shoving, dribbling, throwing her arms up and down.

I think with a bit of training, she just might be a very good basketball player.

Misery

When my mom was little she had this cute little kids book that we loved to read.  It was called "Misery."  Each page described what a miserable situation could be for a kid.  My favorite was "Misery is when everyone in the car smells dog doo doo and you realize it's on the bottom of your shoe."

I left the kids for 2 hours on their day home for MLK holiday to help Grandma and Grandad.  They had a list of household chores to do to clean the house while I was gone.  Soon after I arrived, I got a text followed quickly by a phone call.  The dog (who doesn't like going outside in the cold) had gone poop on the hardwood, family room floors and the robot vacuum had found it before anyone noticed.

Yes....dog poo was smeared and spread all over the floor, under couches and tables in a circular pattern.  The house smelled tremendously terrible, the vacuum was disgusting and no one wanted to clean it up.

Let's just say I wasn't happy with the dog.  No one was.

And since my Roomba vac didn't come cheap and I use it daily in this house, I spent my afternoon gagging while I picked doo doo out of the wheel treads of my Roomba with a toothpick.  Thankfully the brushes can be easily replaced and Amazon Prime is coming in handy.

Not funny.

My sequel to the 1950's book, "Misery" is this:

Misery is when the dog poops on the hardwood floors and the robot vac finds it before you do.

Happy 11th Roofie Poofie

January 19, Ruth turned 11.

Eleven was the age that her 2 big sisters got their ears pierced so she had been anticipating this day for a while.  Because the day before her birthday was a holiday and on her birthday was a busy day of school and basketball games, we decided to head to Walmart and get them pierced early.

Ruth was a BRAVE girl!  I don't even think she knows how brave she was.  

Everything seemed to go wrong with her experience but she seemed oblivious to it....thank goodness.

First she wanted garnet earrings but they were out so she chose gold crosses.

Right ear went in fine.  She didn't even flinch.

As the lady pulled the trigger on the left ear, she let out a big expletive loud and clear - right in front of me and my brood of small fishes....no apologies made.  The earring had gone half way into Ruth's ear and no farther.  She twisted and pulled and got it out and then tried to reload the earring into the gun (they come pre-loaded).  After 3 attempts to re-pierce the ear, she decided she would have to find another box of cross earrings and start over.  

As she dumped box after box of earring starter kits on the floor looking for another match, I'm praying silently, "Please find a gold cross" trying not to imagine my little girl wearing mismatched earrings for the next 6 weeks.

Finally she found the cross ones.

Bam!  Shot them through her ear....and the gun stuck to the earring back.

Yank...yank...(thankfully no other expletivies) and voila!  Mission accomplished.

Now my 2 older fish girls would have been in a frantic state of freaking out but not Ruth.  She sat as calmly as you see her in these photos!

She was tough!

We enjoyed Oreo Ice Cream Cake (family tradition) with a mint chocolate chip twist.

Gift opening before school.

 

And this cute photo posted on Facebook.

Happy 11th birthday Ruth!  We sure love you.

Time for Goodbyes

And before we could blink, it was time to hit the road.  A super long road trip for a super short visit.

So thankful we did it.

Rachel is having baby #4 in May so she won't be heading to TN this summer!  :(

We hit the road at 7:00 a.m. EST and apparently they didn't get enough sleep the night before.

The first few hours were very quiet.

Goodbye VA and Mimi!  We had a great time.

Death By Selfies

My little brother announced, in his very Seinfeld way, that there are more deaths from selfies than from shark attacks just as we were grabbing Katie's selfie stick to take a sibling selfie.  As Katie was hooking her phone up, Justin was explaining all of the deaths that he had read about (12 in 2015 to be exact) of people taking a selfie minutes before their lives ended....falling down the steps of the Taj Mahal, falling off a cliff, etc.

First attempt, Katie realized the selfie stick was holding down the button and instead we had made 67 photos - mostly of Katie's chest - while setting up.

The laughing was just getting started.

Attempt 2:  "Why is the selfie stick showing in the photo?  I thought that was the point....to hold it out so you can't see the stick?"

More fumbling with the stick and the phone as Justin continues telling us the selfie related deaths and dangers.

Katie: "Maybe we should hold it higher."

Nope - stick still shows.

"How about down here?"

More laughing.

Justin figured it out.

This is how you do it!

Finally the guy who warned us all about the selfie stick in the first place, who happens to be a math teacher, showed us it's all about angles.

Perfect photo - if we can stop laughing enough to freeze and smile!

Silly Siblings

I love my sisters and brother.

We always have such a fun time when we are together.

You'd never know there was a big age gap between us.

Rachel and Katie proved to me that sometimes it's wise to put security measures on your iPhone.

They set this one as my new screen saver.

Now every time I see it, I laugh and miss them. 

And speaking of not putting a passcode on my phone, these knuckle heads found my phone and within a few minutes put 143 selfies on my phone.

There's no doubt....we are a SPICY family!

Celebrating a Century

• 1916: 
• Albert Einstein completes his mathematical formulation of a general theory of relativity, which includes gravity.
• Charlie Chaplin signs on with Mutual Studios and earns an unprecedented $10,000 a week.
• Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.02
• Montana voters elect 36-year-old Republican Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. 
• President: Woodrow Wilson
  Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall
  Population: 101,961,000
• 1st issue of "Journal of Negro History" published
• The cost of a movie ticket was $0.07, an ounce of gold was $20.72 and a loaf of bread was $0.05. The average home was $6,187, the price of a car was $440.

On Monday, January 4, 2016 we celebrated Mimi's 100th Birthday at her community.  

The birthday girl finally arrived.

Candid.  I promise they were having fun.

A toast to Mimi was made and these 2 cousins were so happy to get sparkling grape juice.  I think they would have taken a Super Sized glass if offered.  

Enjoying pestering big cousin

s.

Looking at cards and gifts brought by everyone.

Mimi's niece and her 2 sons drove a long distance from Iowa to see Mimi.
My great grandmother years ago had made this beautiful family photo album for Mimi's niece because her father (Mimi's brother) had died in his mid forties.  I don't think Mimi had ever seen the album and what a treat it was for us to look through this beautifully made old photo graph book of Mimi's childhood.

Fish Family

All of Mimi's great grandchildren who came to the party.  Missing the little 3 in WA and the little 3 in Memphis.

Mimi's 4 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren (of the 17)

Family and friends.

Brenda and Ken Grant on the left - neighbors and long time friends (like family) to Mimi.

Uncle Paul and Aunt Linda from NC.

Aunt Kay (Pop's cousin) and her sons Bill and Pat from Iowa.

Uncle David (Pop's cousin whom he had never met in person until the party) from GA.

Warrens, Fishes, Rachel, Justin, Nonie and Pops.

The Original Paynes

Mimi's only 4 grand children

Mimi with her 2 sons

Uncle Paul and Aunt Linda

Ken and Brenda

The kids did great hanging out during the 3 hour party.  They played on electronics and My Man led them in a big game of Animal.

This party was so special to me in so many ways.  Since Mimi and Papa moved into their retirement community when I was in college, our Christmas and summer visits to see them were never the same.  Katie got married.  Then I got married.  Mimi and Papa transitioned from a cottage to an apartment and then Papa had a stroke and soon after passed away.  Mimi has transitioned into assisted living and being 9 hours away, all of our visits with our children have been few and far between.

I wish all of us could have been there, including the 2 spouses and 6 cousins who couldn't make the long trek, but being together again in VA was so nostalgic.  My Mimi is an amazing, sharp woman full of grace.  She is very easy going (that's why all the people at her assisted living home love her so much), thankful, kind, engaging, loves to laugh, and truly cares for people.  The Lord has blessed her with a sharp mind even at the age of 100.  I know she never imaged that she would live to be this old, and I hate that she lives so far away from us, but I was thankful beyond words to celebrate this special milestone with her and our family.